The upcoming update to Windows 10 represents a major shift by Microsoft. While the company won’t admit it, the October 2018 update was a disaster. So many bugs in the update, including some that destroyed customers files.

Somewhat chastened, the Win10 May 2019 update is being deployed in a much more cautious way.

The May 2019 update was supposed to be out in March. Redmond has spent more time testing the update and gathering more reports from the real world.

Users get a choice. You read that right … Microsoft is giving customers a choice about when to update Windows 10 to the May 2019 release.

Instead of forcing a major update on users, it will appear as an option on the Windows Update screen.

Source: Microsoft

Eventually the major update is automatically applied, but only when support for the installed version runs out.

Overall, updates can be paused for up to 35 days. Also options to pause either Feature updates or bug fixes (sorry ‘security improvements’).

That allows cautious Windows users to wait out the troublesome time after updates and patches are released. Let other people be the ‘guinea pigs’ instead.

There’s still room for improvement. A consistent naming for major updates would be nice. You’ll see Microsoft talking about the ‘May 2019 update’ or version 19H1 but those term aren’t used in Windows 10 itself. Instead it’s called ‘Feature update to Windows 10, version 1903’ or Build 1903 in the system info.

The new update features apply to Windows 10 before the May 2019 update is installed.